Daniel Freeman Hospitals May Be Sold to Tenet or Closed
Administrators, physicians and community members are "debating" the future of the "financially troubled" Daniel Freeman Hospitals in Inglewood and Marina del Rey, the Los Angeles Times reports. The two hospitals face a "large" bond debt and have lost about $23 million since July, largely due to an increasing number of patients who are unable to pay for services. Hospital administrators are negotiating "exclusively" with Tenet Health Care Corp., a for-profit health system that owns 30 Southern California hospitals, to sell the two hospitals. Administrators and Tenet "hope to close the deal later this month," and the hospitals' owner, not-for-profit Carondelet Health System, said it "may be forced" to close the two facilities if "they are not sold soon." Meanwhile, hospital physicians say they oppose a Tenet takeover and are "fighting for the chance to buy and operate the hospitals as not-for-profit facilities." At a community meeting Thursday, area residents and advocates "expressed fears about the future of care for poor people" if the hospitals were to close or be purchased by Tenet. Delia Council, executive director of Inglewood's Coalition for Drug and Violence Prevention, said, "[T]he community will bleed if the nature of the hospital cannot be maintained." Sister Regina Clare Salazar, the vice president for sponsorship and mission at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital in Inglewood, added, "We don't want to lose the hospital. We'll do anything to keep it open" (Casillas, Los Angeles Times, 6/2).
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